CALCULATING LOCAL ALLOCATIONS USING THE JABG FORMULA
Title I of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act., which describes the JABG Program, requires that states allocate funds to localities based on a weighted formula of juvenile justice expenditures and Part I violent crimes. The formula is designed for states to distribute three-fourths of the pass-through funds based on expenditures, and one-fourth based on crime.
To accomplish this split, the total amount of money the state intends to pass through to localities is divided into two "pools": the expenditures pool (three-fourths of the total pass-through amount), and the crime pool (one-fourth of the total pass-through amount). Each pool is then divided among localities based on the percentage of the total state expenditure and crime numbers that their locality represents. The two pool allocations for each locality are then added together to arrive at the total allocation.
Here is an example of how the local allocation is calculated:
Anystate will receive $800,000 in JABG funds. Assuming that Anystate passes through 75% of its allocation to its localities, it will distribute $600,000. Assuming that there are only five local governments in Anystate, the crime and expenditure data for the localities are shown below:
Locality |
Number of Part I Crimes |
Justice Expenditures |
City 1 |
20,000 | 6,000,000 |
| City 2 | 10,000 | 3,000,000 |
| County 1 | 15,000 | 5,000,000 |
| County 2 | 4,800 | 990,000 |
| Town 1 | 200 | 10,000 |
| Total State | 50,000 | $15,000,000 |
Each of the above numbers is converted to a percentage by dividing it into the state total
shown in the bottom row of the table. The results are shown below:
Locality |
Percent of Part I Crimes |
Percent of Justice Expenditures |
| City 1 | 40.00 |
40.00 |
| City 2 | 20.00 |
20.00 |
| County 1 | 30.00 |
33.33 |
| County 2 | 9.60 |
6.60 |
| Town 1 | 0.40 |
0.07 |
| Total State | 100.00 |
100.00 |
The two pool amounts for the state are $450,000 based on justice expenditures (three-fourths of $600,000 total pass-through), and $150,000 based on Part I violent crimes (one-fourth of the $600,000). Funds in each pool are allocated to the localities according to the percentages in the table above (for example, City 1 receives 40% of the $150,000 crime pool and 40% of the $450,000 expenditure pool). The results of these calculations are shown below. The total allocation for each locality shown in the last column is found by adding together the allocations from the two pools.
Locality |
Allocation Based on Part I Crimes |
Allocation Based on Justice Expenditures |
Total Allocation |
| City 1 | $ 60,000 |
$180,000 |
$240,000 |
| City 2 | 30,000 | 90,000 |
120,000 |
| County 1 | 45,000 |
149,985 |
194,985 |
| County 2 | 14,400 |
29,700 |
44,100 |
| Town 1 | 600 |
315 |
915 |
| Total State | $150,000 | $450,000 |
$600,000 |
The final allocations are as follows:
City 1 |
$240,000 |
City 2 |
120,000 |
County 1 |
194,985 |
County 2 |
44,100 |
Town 1 |
0 |
Since the allocation for Town 1 is less than $10,000, Town 1 receives no JABG funds.